‘British victim’ will provide ‘reliable’ Maxwell evidence

THE prosecution case against Ghislaine Maxwell relies on the testimony of just one of the four alleged victims.

The US government plans to focus on evidence from Annie Farmer, the only accuser in Ms Maxwell’s indictment to waive her anonymity for the trial set to start tomorrow.

Ms Farmer says she was introduced to Ms Maxwell and her Jeffrey Epstein aged 16 and alleges she was taken to the financier’s ranch in New Mexico where she was sexually assaulted in 1996.

Ms Farmer has said that Ms Maxwell exposed her breasts and groped her, letting Epstein watch. Her allegations have remained consistent over the years since she reported Epstein to the FBI months after the alleged incident.

“Maxwell was a really important part of the grooming process,” Ms Farmer said in 2019. “They worked together as a team.” That year, Ms Farmer filed a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate and Ms Maxwell. She accepted compensation, which required her to drop her suit. A source said: “Her story will be most convincing to the jury and the hardest one for the defence to answer.”

Ms Maxwell denies the charges. Her team last week sought to dismiss “Victim 3’s” evidence, or bar any suggestion that she was a “minor” who suffered “sexual abuse”. Victim 3, understood to be British, claims she was groomed by Epstein and Ms Maxwell in London in 1994 when she was around 17 years old.

However, the abuse is alleged to have occurred later in New Mexico where the age of consent is 16. A letter from the prosecution argued that the woman’s evidence was relevant even if she was over the age of consent because it showed the “core of the conspiracy” for which Ms Maxwell is charged.

The British socialite is accused of conspiring to “entice” and “transport” minor victims to perform illegal sexual acts with Epstein.

The judge said she will instruct the jury they could not convict Ms Maxwell over that alleged conduct alone.